The goal is to reduce the health problems that many times come along with poverty, including obesity, asthma, poor language development, injuries, depression, and psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Ben Gitterman, chairman of the AAP’s Council on Community Pediatrics and one of the lead authors on the new policy, described the recommendations as the ultimate in preventative medicine.

“This is why it really matters,” he told Healthline.

Others agreed.

“The recommendations are completely in line and appropriate with all the research showing how much impact poverty can have on children,” Laura Segal, director of public relations for Trust for America’s Health, told Healthline. “It’s exciting to see pediatricians taking a lead on this issue.”

Why It’s Important

AAP officials say if you count poor, near poor and low-income households within that group the number swells to about 43 percent of children in the United States that live in poverty. That’s more than 31 million individuals under the age of 18.

AAP officials note that poverty has always been high in rural and urban areas, but now suburban communities are seeing the quickest and strongest growth in this area.

“Poverty is everywhere. It affects children of all backgrounds and in all communities,” Dr. Benard P. Dreyer, FAAP, president of the AAP, said in a statement.

Officials note poverty produces more than the obvious health ailments such as malnutrition and infections.

The list of chronic, lifelong illnesses related to poverty is a long one. Reducing them not only improves families’ lives, it also reduces healthcare costs.

Gitterman said that’s why the AAP wants to move poverty from being a secondary concern to a “primary issue” among doctors.

“It’s been elevated to something that we are going to take head on," he said.